Hommage Double Flying Tourbillon with Hand-made guilloché, pink gold

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Hommage Double Flying Tourbillon with Hand-made guilloché, pink gold - Roger Dubuis
3 minutes read
This new piece of the Hommage collection highlights the traditional art of guilloché embodying a combination of traditional and modern craftsmanship.

By introducing the first Hommage models in 1995, Mr Roger Dubuis was paying a glowing tribute to his forefathers in the watchmaking field as well as to horological traditions in the broadest sense of the term. When it came time to create the exceptional Hommage Double Flying Tourbillon with Hand-made guilloché, Gregory Bruttin and the R&D department that he heads opted for a deliberately simple display. Adopting a pareddown design made it possible to tailor the movement even more closely to the intrinsically traditional nature of the Hommage collection, while also providing even more space in which to offer a contemporary aesthetic interpretation.

The result of these deliberations was the RD100, a new movement composed of 452 individually hand-finished parts, endowed with a 50-hour power reserve and which called for 1,200 hours of manufacturing – of which 360 are devoted to meeting the Poinçon de Genève criteria – as well as six full weeks of controls.

As Lionel Favre, Associate Director of Product Design, points out, details such as the slightly more bevelled lugs, horizontal satin-brushing on the sides of the case, a large interhorn space ensuring a perfect fit, combine to create an even more ergonomic look and feel. Despite exuding an admirable presence, this generously sized model is not at all bulky and instead maintains an aura of refined elegance that befits its classic heritage.

The polished and alternating satin-brushed surfaces, along with the sunray effect that has become a signature feature of Roger Dubuis timepieces, jointly contribute to the graphic appeal based on effective contrasts such as that between the rhodium-plated movement and its pink gold case. Doubtless the most striking aspect of the new Hommage Double Flying Tourbillon is the highly original guilloché work on the front.

 

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The art of guilloché
The art of guilloché, which dates back to the 16th century, consists in “decorating an object with engraved, etched and intersecting lines”. At the end of the 18h century (1786), this art was applied to decorating watch dials and cases. The brilliance of the incision in precious metals produced a peerless decorative effect and this technique enjoyed an extraordinary surge of popularity in the 19th century.

Hand-guilloché techniques in particular convey a unique prestige, applied using age-old straight-line or rose engines turned or operated by artisans and thus in fact mere tools assisting the latter in their delicate task entirely guided by personal skill, experience and intuition. The beauty of the motifs thus created depends on the artisan’s aesthetic flair and dexterity, since the success of their endeavours is determined by a number of factors including speed, pressure and accurate positioning.

The guilloché motifs hollowed out by the graver will never be identical on two given parts – a fact that in turns explains the unique and exceptional nature of each watch with a hand-guilloché dial.

In the Hommage Double Flying Tourbillon with Hand-made Guilloché, the ample space provided by the new movement design sparked the creative decision to craft the décor directly on the movement mainplate.

The hollowed guilloché work on this model also stands out by its impressive depth, exquisitely manually crafted by passing the tool across each notch or groove at least four times instead of the usual one or two!

The applied Roman numerals are fitted directly on the mainplate, and in this respect Gregory Bruttin shares a story from the development process that provides a fascinating insight into the Roger Dubuis attitude that pervades every aspect of its timepieces.

 

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Pleasing the soulmaker
Mr Roger Dubuis himself, the founder of the Manufacture, continues to play a key inspirational role and engages in regular exchanges with Gregory Bruttin and his colleagues on all new developments. When the “maestro” himself pronounces something “perfect”, one can be pretty sure it is indeed as close as is humanly possible to this much-coveted ideal! It is not for nothing that his signature appears metallised on the sapphire crystal pane fitted into the exhibition case-back.

The Hommage Double Flying Tourbillon with Hand-made guilloché is offered in four variations: the white gold version, the pink gold version set with diamonds, the pink gold non-set variation, and the pink gold interpretation issued in a limited Boutique Edition of 88 featuring a pink gold movement.

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